Shariful Islam first learned about freelance outsourcing during his high school years. He took training and started working as a freelancer in digital marketing and web design during the idle time of the pandemic.
In his first month, he earned 10,000 BDT. From there, he started working for various European companies. Within six months, his earnings reached an average of 100,000 BDT per month.
His father was a physically challenged individual, and Shariful took care of his own education expenses as well as supporting his family. He even managed the educational expenses of his younger siblings without difficulty.
Shariful, who was studying at a private university in the capital, was living a steady life. However, everything collapsed during the government movement for reforming the quota system in July-August of last year, when the internet was shut down for 13 days.
During this period, he had ongoing work from 10 foreign clients. Unfortunately, he was unable to reply to messages or submit the completed work on time, leading to a loss of trust.
As a result, six buyers from Fiverr gave his account negative reviews and bad ratings. Since then, Shariful has not received any work in the past seven months. His savings have been exhausted, and his and his younger siblings' education is at risk. The entire family is now facing severe financial distress.
Sharing his thoughts with The Daily Ittefaq, Shariful Islam said, "Now I see darkness everywhere." Like Shariful Islam, nearly 300,000 freelancers in the country have not been able to secure work from foreign clients for the past seven months, making them completely unemployed. These freelancers had worked for years to build their careers.
A freelancer named Naimul Islam Rubel said, "Because of the internet shutdown, my Upwork account was canceled. I lost all ongoing projects. Clients informed me that they would never work with me again. Not only Upwork, but on Fiverr, my gig and response rates also dropped. I haven't been able to get any work in the last seven months. Clients primarily require instant communication, which I couldn't provide during the internet shutdown".
Due to the long gap in communication with clients, freelancers have faced this situation. It is also possible that in the future, they may be denied work simply because of their 'Bangladeshi' identity.
Freelancer Firoz Hossain said, "Two ongoing projects were canceled, and I couldn’t accept three other projects. One gave me a bad rating. I still haven't received work due to this rating, and it seems unlikely that I will get work in the future." Freelancer Shahidul Islam mentioned, "I was working on multiple projects, and though they were near completion, I couldn't explain the situation to clients due to the lack of internet. As a result, my marketplace account was canceled. The damage is immeasurable."
Meanwhile, many freelancers traveled to neighboring countries like Nepal, India, Dubai, Thailand, and Vietnam during the internet shutdown to complete urgent work. Some IT companies even sent their employees to Nepal, helping them avoid major losses. However, the number of such freelancers is fewer than 10,000.
A report by the current government states that the mobile internet shutdown on July 15-16, the broadband internet shutdown from July 18-23, and the August 5 shutdown were implemented based on the verbal instructions of then-Junior Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak, without administrative approval from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.
At the time, Palak claimed that the internet shutdown was due to a fire at the data center. However, it was later revealed that the fire had no connection to the internet shutdown.
The Bengali term for freelancing is "Mukto Peshajibi" (Independent Professionals). This career does not have the constraints of a nine-to-five job. Freelancers can work from the office, home, or any location, requiring only skill, electricity, and a stable internet connection.
Companies from the US, UK, Europe, and other countries prefer outsourcing certain tech-related tasks because it is more cost-effective compared to hiring local employees. Sometimes, it is also difficult to find suitable local workers. In such cases, companies outsource the work, saving money while freelancers can earn from anywhere.
The exact number of freelancers in Bangladesh is not available, but according to the Bangladesh Freelancer Development Society, freelancers work across 153 marketplaces, making the estimated number of freelancers around 1 million.